In 2012, a surprising twist and without ever ratifying it, the United States became the first major industrialized nation in the world to meet the United Nation&#146;s original Kyoto Protocol 2012 target for CO2 reductions.

No doubt, Obama's war on coal is going to devastate several states. It will raise electric rates, cause more unemployment with nothing to take its place. If it is a state that NG can be extracted they will not suffer as badly. End result more people below the poverty level, and on welfare. I know right today we in CA pay 2.5 times as much for our electricity as those on Coal power. Come up with a comparably priced alternative before you kill all those jobs and inflate the cost of electricity.

Yes, it's cheap gas that's resulted in the US seeing the biggest drop in CO2 emissions of any country. Nothing to do with Obama's just-announced policies on coal, and, most importantly, NOTHING to with the myriad expensive government programs to try and promote expensive, inefficient, and, in many cases, just plain wasteful 'green' technologies.

That's my problem. Let's assume we want to reduce CO2 emissions because of GW. We make a HUGE amount of CO2, so it follows that we have to be VERY careful how we do it, or we could go broke and still fail. That's where today's government programs are: we ARE broke (just look at the EU), and the government programs (ethanol, huge subsidies for EVs, solar and wind) will break us AND do next to nothing to reduce CO2.

Natural gas is THE short term solution, back out coal production, meanwhile pursue nuclear power.

And we don't need a 'war on coal'. Just apply existing regulations to power emissions, and get rid of the nightmare that is mountain top removal. Low natural gas prices will do the rest.

As an EU researcher it, biofuels (as they currently exist) are a "crime against humanity". The US uses nearly HALF it's corn crop for ethanol, driving up corn prices world-wide. Europe uses both corn and wheat. And the drive for biodiesel resulted in mass destruction of rainforests in SE Asia to plant palm oil plantations. The GW impact of that may never be made up with biodiesel use, a true ecological disaster.

The 'law of unintended consequences' has no better case study than the world's missteps on GW.

Current nuke technology isn't there - it's insane to subsidize that industry to generate cheap power to run air conditioners for thirty years and then spend billions for untold decades keeping tabs on the poisonous waste. I'm amazed they are still working on the one in Georgia - glad I'm not a shareholder or ratepayer there. Although I may still wind up on the hook since it sounds like it could be Solyndra Two. (CS Monitor).

There's one place the government's spent a lot of money - nuclear container safety for trains and trucks. You can find lots of videos of huge flaming wrecks at high speed that demonstrate the safety of the containers. Really not an issue.

Chernobyl is like being worried about the safety of a 1930 Ford. TMI, bad accident, nobody hurt. Fukushima, don't put a reactor in a tsunami threat area. There are clearly risks, as there are with ALL power sources. Wind power? Kill thousands of threatened raptors. Solar? Cover thousands of square miles of wilderness with collectors, at huge cost.

I'm with you. Natural gas as an interim to good clean safe Nuclear power. Reprocessing the fuel removes most of the storage risks. We need to get our heads out of the sand on energy. Wind and solar are purely tax havens and ripping off the public. Residential solar is fine and may or may not pay off. I don't think they will last the warranty period. And the homeowner will be SOL as the company will no longer exist. There are several solar arrays in my neighborhood that have all gone to pot. I will take pictures for the skeptics.

Those are weapons grade nuclear waste site. Not nuclear energy waste. That is not on my list of possible places to move. However they are protected as you pointed out by the Price-Anderson Act passed by a totally Democrat controlled Congress and signed by a president that was not sure if he was a Democrat or Republican.

As far as the people in the vicinity of Hanford. They live there on their own free will. That complex has been a nuclear site since I was born in 1943. Is it safe? Probably not real safe. The real question is what is safe. You walk across the street and get hit by a car you could be dead. That means that was an unsafe place to be for you at that moment. I would take my chances living near Hanford over any of the major cities in America.

Ditto the streams around Oak Ridge or Monroe MI or Westmoreland PA or Briadwood IL....

Really though, I don't know why Greenpeace and the rest spend so much time and money fighting nukes. About the time everyone gets complacent, another accident happens and swings more public opinion against nukes. Looks like we're averaging about 3 or 4 major ones a decade now since the 50s. (Wiki).

My fish today is limited to Costco fresh Tilapia from farms in Costa Rica. I miss my seared Ahi. Just not worth the risk. Canned Tuna is a rarity in our diet. And it was pole caught off the NW coast. Last salmon we had my son brought us. He says Alaska salmon fishing is in the toilet due to commercial limits being raised too high. I need to get my aquaponics system up and running to have safe food to eat. GW is the very LEAST of our problems.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Last week's frosts in southern Brazil damaged nearly a fifth of the unharvested cane crop in the principal growing region, an event likely to cut sugar exports from the world's largest producer, agriculture research company Datagro said Wednesday.

Severe early morning frosts on July 24 and 25 in three of Brazil's top sugar-cane states devastated large areas, Datagro President Plinio Nastari told Reuters. The cold blight comes at the peak the crushing season when more than half of Brazil's expected record 590-million-tonne crop remains unharvested.

Although Nastari was unable to say how much mill-output will drop or reduce a global sugar glut that has pushed prices to three-year lows, he said 65 million metric tons, or 18 percent of the cane standing uncut in fields was damaged by the frost.

Frost in tropical Brazil has long been a weather risk for global coffee markets. This frost, though, is the first in recent history that threatens to significantly cut sugar output and it's impact will likely extend into the next harvest too.

"Automakers have sold about 298,000 hybrids, which alternately run on gasoline engines and battery power, so far this year.

And while electric vehicles may be considered greener and more glamorous, hybrids have quietly entered the mainstream of the American auto market.

Today, more than 40 conventional hybrid models are available, from mass-market automakers like Toyota and Ford to luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes. Hybrids account for about 3 percent of overall industry sales, with the market-leading Toyota Prius cracking the Top 10 list of best-selling passenger cars."

The fact that Yosemite was formed by glaciers that are long gone would contribute to the theory of gradual warming for the last million years. The hardest thing for me to accept is man being a significant part of the equation. We are producing more GHG every year yet the climate has NOT followed the same pattern. I can tell you I am glad I am no longer in the Arctic. Those that are have endured worse winters in just the last 7 years since I left. And now only 45 days above freezing. I am sure there will be some villages that don't get their much needed fuel delivered by barges.

As for hybrids. They are becoming more main stream. Except the Volt. I see it is not selling as well as last year. How is the plugin Prius selling?

Just anecdotal observation via Weather Underground. Other than a 3 week period of normal 90s weather in July, we are enjoying low 80s for the foreseeable future. On average over the last 10 days we have been 4-6 degrees below normal both day and night.

Plus no mention from the media of the record setting ice sheets covering Antarctica.

Anecdotal wise, it is almost 11 AM here in eastern Kansas and it is 68 degrees. Unheard of. The high today is forecast to be in the 70's.

Usually, at this time of year, we are parched, dry, everything is dried up, and it is 100 degrees plus. Not this year. Everything is as lush and green as it was back in early June. I would have said May...but it was still snowing then.

For the first time in memory, farmers are complaining about too much rain.

Not a single person showed up at the Georgetown waterfront Tuesday for a climate change agenda event put on by Organizing for Action, the shadowy nonprofit advocacy group born out of President Obama&#146;s 2012 campaign, the NRCC wrote in its blog.

The event page for the &#147;Climate Change Day of Action Rally&#148; disappeared after rainy weather appeared to drive away whatever people planned to attend. The embarrassing showing follows the news that only one volunteer stayed for an OFA Obamacare event in Centreville, Va., last week to work the phones:

Very hard to push the GW agenda when the weather does not cooperate. Today was the first day of normal day time highs this month. We are still 10 degrees below our over night low average. Time to scrap the GW plan.

It&#146;s mid-afternoon in mid-August and, under full sunshine, Washington, D.C. is just 77 degrees. The average high for August 14 is 87.

Today currently ranks as tied for the 4th coolest August 14 on record dating back to 1929.

This morning&#146;s low of 62 degrees ranks as the 11th coolest since 1929, seven degrees below normal. The last time it was this cool in August was August 31, 2009 notes CWG&#146;s Rick Grow.

&#147;Prior to August 2009, you&#146;d have to go all the way back to Aug 13, 2006 to find a colder low (61) [at DCA],&#148; Grow says. &#147;Today, tomorrow and Friday are on track to be the coldest three consecutive August mornings since 2004, which featured lows of 62 (6th), 58 (7th), and 59 (8th).&#148;

Same type of weather in KC. Mid 50's this morning with an expected high of 80. Low humidity and full sunshine. Just about perfect...and 10 to 12 degrees below normal.

I think about 90% of our citizens know that GW is a scam. The warmers who are still pushing GW have a financial interest and want something for free. Then there is always a few misguided folks who will fall for anything.

There are also those that just cannot accept the fact that scientists are greedy human beings like the rest of US. It makes it easier to slightly twist the facts if your grant or paycheck are involved. Which most of the time they are. For example:

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell today challenged her employees to take an active role in the &#147;moral imperative&#148; to address climate change.

&#147;I hope there are no climate change deniers in the Department of Interior,&#148; she said.

Fourth, when the leader of an agency talks like this, it&#146;s not an off the cuff remark between friends, it is an admonishment at best, a threat at worst, designed to tell the employees of Interior that they best damned well toe the line in believing in Hotcoldwetdry, because dissent will not be tolerated.